Heroes of the Realms Below
by Soulful Plain Strider
Summary: In the depths beneath countries, in the realms of the Keepers, heroes fight for good to protect their country, their people and everything they believe in. This story follows a small band of heroes at the fore-front of a war to protect a large fortress which houses an entrance to the surface world.
1. Part 1: Defenders of Good: Prologue

I've been a dungeon keeper fan for a long time (original over second), a while back I had a few stories which I unfortunately didn't finish and regret. I have considered returning to them but I'm not the same person and therefore my writing style isn't the same plus picking up a story again after so long would be tricky to do anyway. However, my 'creatures of the dungeon' story is something I could and did pick back up because its small silly bits of fun that are mostly nostalgia triggers for people. It got me to thinking that the few stories I've read are usually about a keeper or some person who becomes a keeper and while I have certainly enjoyed those stories I wanted to look at something a little different. This story looks at a band of heroes but while they are the starting point I aim to cover all sides of the dungeon keeper experience: heroes, keepers, heroes vs keeper/s and keeper vs keeper.

I also find myself in a situation where I have a lot of time to write so while thinking about this concept it just started pouring out you might say and knowing that I'll have more time to keep writing I decided hey why not, let's publish it and see what people think. I think I'm supposed to do something along the lines of: I don't own the dungeon keeper franchise; so there we go. I hope you enjoy this story and please I do enjoy getting feedback. On a final note I expect updates to come at least 1, usually 2 chapters per week at least. Thank you for your time, on to the story!

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><p><strong>"Ok men, we will be moving out soon. We have received word that a new Keeper has created a heart in this realm. There's already enough problems with the two well established dungeons here. Our fortress will not be able to withstand a third. It's our job to get rid of this one before it gets too powerful."<strong> A man wearing light leather armour spoke as he leaned over a table with a map of the hero fortress and the tunnels leading to the two enemy Keepers as well as the suspected location of the third new dungeon. A second older man dressed in wizard garb nodded in agreement before pointing at the marker for the new dungeon heart.

**"Scouting tunnellers, as well as my own divinations, were able to detect the inflow of evil energy into this area which we believe can only be the result of creating a new heart."** He stroked his beard in thought before adding, **"I do not think this new Keeper is very experienced. In the time it has been here it has not made any attempt to secure a gem source, merely tapped a small gold seam. The expansion of its dungeon must therefore be stunted and any creatures will likely not be capable of handling us."**

**"A milk run for once, the people here could use a victory, even a small one after everything that's happened."** The priestess of their little group was always keeping an eye out for everyone, trying to keep their spirits up.

**"I completely agree Thesia; but for now let's focus on how we're going to do this,"** the first man said before addressing the rest of the group. **"Gerick, you will scout the way while Haldrun and Phineas follow up and open a path for the rest of us,"** he was speaking to a diminutive dwarf and his two larger mountain cousins. He then turned to a pair of tall, muscular men; they looked like brothers. **"Thurg and Hurg keep an eye on them and be ready to cover them as soon as they break into the dungeon. Eira, Alistair and Fredrick, keep close behind and have those bows ready to provide fire support. Finally, Thesia and Anrakis, if Thurg and Hurg get overwhelmed be ready to catch any creatures that break through."**

They all nodded as they received their orders before Anrakis said, **"And you Farish?"**

**"As if you need to ask. I'll sneak around and catch the enemy from behind,"** he replied.

**"Hah, after ye get yer hands on some o' the shinies in their treasure room no doubt,"** Haldrun chuckled.

Farish threw his hands up in mock defeat, **"You got me. I'm giving you guys the hard work while I loot the place."**

Anrakis eyed both of them sternly. The two couldn't help but smirk at their companion's serious demeanour.

After a moment Farish's smile faded and he spoke again in a sombre tone, **"I know some of you are new to our group. Our last mission … well it went badly as you probably heard. After training with all of you though and seeing how you all fight, I know that we'll be able to handle this. So everyone get a good night's rest and assemble at the eastern gate in six hours. That is all."** They all nodded and split off to do whatever it was they wanted before heading to their bunks. When all had left save Farish and Anrakis the two looked at the map for several minutes before either spoke.

**"So what do you think?"** Farish asked.

Anrakis looked up and said, **"The formation is fine, I don't foresee any difficulties."**

**"You know I'm not talking about the plan,"** Farish huffed.

Anrakis closed his eyes in thought, **"I feel their loss too, but these new recruits will do well."**

**"If they survive …"** Farish mumbled.


	2. Chapter 1: The Search for Evil

So here's chapter 1 too. I have heard before that my chapters are too short. I assure that I know that the prologue was short, it was a prologue thing, the regular chapters will be bigger like this one. It is something I've had difficulty with because working with smaller chapters allows me to have breaks where non-important things are happening, jump between different things etc. Let me know how this feels for length.

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><p>Haldrun yawned loudly as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He looked around to see that the night watch had yet to return to the barracks.<p>

**"I hate early mornings,"** he grumbled to himself, not that any natural light made it this deep down. He kicked Phineas who was still fast asleep in the bunk next to him, enjoying inflicting his own problem on someone else too, **"Oy get yer ass up, and wake the scrawny one while yer at it. The others're probably waiting fer us."** Phineas grumbled as he went about his own waking up process, shooting a glare at his superior when he felt it was safe. The three dwarves fumbled their way into their armour before heading to the eastern gate to meet the rest.

The fortress was quite a magnificent construction. It had been built a long time ago when the Keepers first threatened the surrounding land. The capital city of Draomar above warranted the huge presence this fortress required to man it. If the city fell the repercussions would be felt not just in this country, but all the neighbouring ones that relied on the resources Draomar produced. With this in mind the original architects had laid out a grand design to guard the surface entrance. Barracks to house hundreds of soldiers, walls fortified to withstand any incursion, Hard points and kill zones capable of allowing the heroes to use superior positioning to take on hordes of the Keepers' armies, not to mention the traps that had been set up throughout in case any creature slipped through the front lines. The scale of what had been done here was certainly not lost on Haldrun as he walked through the corridor to the eastern gate, but his mind was focussed on the mission that was about to begin.

**"I tell you, gate too big. It fall down if giant fell on it."**

**"Thrug I think the people who built this place know more about how to build a secure gate than you or I,"** Farish rolled his eyes as he humoured the large man. Thrug looked up at the gate, apparently not convinced but left the matter alone for now. At that point the dwarves arrived, sitting themselves down on a dais that held a stone statue of the king whose seat of power was in Draomar.

**"Good of you gentlemen to join us," Farish said, "That's everyone I think, except for –"**

As he was about to finish a young man ran down a joining corridor, calling for help. The heroes' hands went to their weapons before they heard another voice following behind.

**"Just one quick test. Come now, it wont take more than a few minutes and it wont hurt a bit,"** Anrakis was following behind at a quick walk but soon gave up, leaning against his staff to catch his breath.

Farish sighed as he sheathed his dagger, **"Always the same with him. Anrakis! Tormenting the support staff again?"**

Anrakis turned towards Farish, **"Surely not, it was a simple experiment. I don't see why the man objects. If I can figure out how to turn someone into a chicken it would change combat tactics as we know them. He just doesn't want to do his part for the war."**

**"Well you can worry about saving the world with new spells later. Right now we have to help save our little bit of it,"** Farish waved the wizard over.

**"Aye the lad's right ya daft old codger, a good axe is all ye be needing to save the world. Not all that fancy smoke an' mirrors hocus pocus,"** Haldrun shouted out.

Anrakis bristled at the insult to his life's work but knew better than to give in to the dwarf's heckling. He knew his magic had saved their lives more than enough times.

**"No fighting, we fight Keepers instead,"** one of the barbarians said.

**"Hurg's right. Let's focus our attention on our enemies, and speaking of which now that everyone's here; let's go,"** Farish said as he signalled for the gate to be opened.

**"May the favour of He who watches over us allow us all to come back alive with good news on this day,"** Thesia added as they crossed into the dank tunnels of the true depths, the realm of the Keepers.

The dwarves were quick to get to work, carving out a new tunnel once they'd travelled sufficiently down the eastern main tunnel. An occasional small change in direction from Anrakis kept them heading in the right direction as he did his best to sense the evil energy of the new dungeon heart. The group kept quiet, not wanting to alert any creatures that might be scouting the area, particularly imps who loved to run around every tunnel and then flee when they found danger to warn their Keeper. Thesia could just about be heard mumbling a prayer under her breath whenever the sounds of digging stopped. It wasn't long before the group tunnelled into the work of the new Keeper. Yellow tiles lined the ground where the imps had claimed the area as part of their dungeon. The sounds of imps running around could be heard down one end of the corridor, probably expanding the dungeon or looking for resources.

**"Which way then?"** Haldrun hissed.

**"Only one way to find out,"** Farish replied. He gulped as he stepped forward, he knew what he had to do but every time he dreaded it. As his foot met the tiled ground he shuddered as he felt a chilling pulse reverberate through his body. Then another, and another; it continued in a deep, steady rhythm which jarred his bones and pulsed in discord to the beating of his own heart. He nodded to the others down the left way, ignoring the sound of imps to the right. Then he mouthed 'good luck' to them and spoke a command word which shrouded him in shadow, allowing him to blend in against the tunnel wall. He carefully made his way down the tunnel as each of the others stepped into their enemy's domain and shuddered as they experienced the same thing. Farish knew they could handle themselves and disappeared down the corridor to find their enemy.


	3. Chapter 2: Battle for the Heart

**"The blasted imp's spotted us, get it before it warns the others,"** Anrakis ordered as the tiny worker ran away from them.

**"We got it, come on guys,"** Eira said as she waved the other archers on and spoke a command word. The world around her slowed, everyone's movements save the other two archers became a snail's pace. The three archers pursued the fleeing imp and launched several volleys of arrows at it before one struck true, killing the creature. It gargled loudly as it died, causing Eira to wince as the sound echoed off the walls. She felt a sense of dread wash over her, one she was all too familiar with. She looked up in time to see creatures falling, as if from thin air, landing just in front of her. Three beetles, not something the three of them couldn't deal with but she knew better. As she looked behind her she found half a dozen demon spawn landing behind her, cutting off their retreat; this was the true threat.

**"There's too many to fall back, break through the front,"** she ordered as she began firing at the beetles, her increased reflexes from her speed spell allowing her to take all this in and begin firing within a second. The others quickly joined her and with the opening volleys of arrows one beetle was turned into a pincushion and a second took a grazing shot to its carapace. The demon spawn behind them were moving forward quickly though, calling out a war cry with their high pitched, demonic sounds. The three archers ran forward to avoid the powerful claws of the demon spawn, two beetles weren't enough to block the entire tunnel but it was enough to let one of them land a blow on Alistair. He yelped in pain as he was knocked into the wall but managed to drag himself into a run again before his attacker could follow up. They ran down the corridor until they found themselves in a lair. They knew immediately they were in trouble, with the creatures chasing them from behind and who knew what was resting in here they might be surrounded. As one the three turned and fired, their arrows striking the beetles in front, killing one more while injuring the final one enough to make it fall behind, but the demon spawn were still coming. There was the sound of magic and a sizzling sound from behind as Eira felt a projectile strike her. Whirling around she saw a second fireball hurtling at her. She dove to the side and felt the heat singe her hair, the first had been warded off by her leather armour luckily but she had no wish to get hit again. Two more fireballs came at her in quick succession which she rolled to avoid, feeling the heat wash over her as she barely avoided them.

**"You hear fighting right? We help them now,"** Hurg said as he slapped his brother on the shoulder and they both took off down the corridor.

**"Wait both of you, don't go on your own,"** Anrakis called after them but it was too late, they were too far ahead.

**"Well nothin' doin' now, we gotta follow them,"** Haldrun said as he grabbed the other two dwarves and gave chase. Anrakis sighed and followed behind with Thesia.

**"You see them Thurg?"** Hurg asked as the two thundered down the corridor.

**"No but hear fight, wait, there,"** the two charged into the opening to a lair and found the three archers backing themselves into a corner as demon spawn advanced on them. The two barbarians rushed forward and brought their hammers down hard on the creatures' backs. Thurg's was crushed by the force of the blow while Hurg broke a leg on his target. The rest of the demon spawn turned on their new attackers and screeched as they jumped at them, their clawed feet slashing at their new targets. The archers recovered while their pursuers were distracted and fired into the backs of the demon spawn. At that point the sense of dread passed over them again and more creatures were dropped into the fray. Three spiders and four trolls landed behind the barbarians, intending to surround them so they couldn't defend themselves. As the new enemies advanced magic rippled through the air as lightning tore into one of the trolls, dropping it to the floor as a burned husk. Soon after another troll was frozen in place and shattered as it was struck by a large burning rock. The warlocks, still uncontested, turned towards the casters and fired their own spells. The air shimmered as the heat from fireballs flew back and forth between them. Thurg and Hurg were taking hits from all sides but they stood their ground, allowing the archers pepper the demon spawn with arrows. The fight looked like it might take its toll when one of the warlocks dropped to the ground. As the warlock fell Farish stood behind him holding a bloodied dagger.

**"For Draomar,"** he shouted and his call was answered by the others. He easily cut through the warlocks as they clumsily tried to back away and launch their fireballs at him. Without the warlocks Anrakis and Thesia turned their attention to the spiders, carving them up with their magic while the last of the demon spawn were dropped by arrow fire. The two remaining trolls were quickly dealt with by heavy swipes from Thurg and Hurg's hammers, crushing the last resistance.

**"Is everyone ok?"** Farish asked as he approached the others.

**"A few injuries but nothing that will stop us from moving on,"** Anrakis said, sizing up the cuts and bruises on the two barbarians.

**"Excellent, that should be the last of them and I've found the dungeon heart just down there,"** Farish said indicating a corridor off to the side.

**"Wait a minute, where did those good for nothing dwarves get to?"** Alistair asked, rubbing his battered shoulder.

Everyone looked around the lair and quickly received their answer when they heard shouting coming from another side tunnel. They rushed in that direction to find all three dwarves laughing maniacally as they chased down and slaughtered a large number of imps which they had cornered in the treasure room.

**"Me axe feasts good today,"** one of them called out as he sliced an imp in two.

**"Typical,"** Eira grumbled, **"We almost get killed and they're having the time of their lives. Hey, get over here you gits!"**

The dwarves stopped, one with an imp struggling as it was pinned to the wall.

**"Oh there ya are, we lost track of ye at the intersection,"** Haldrun called out as he wiped the blood off his axe.

**"Yes I'm sure it was tough to find your way down that straight corridor. Just get over here, we still have a job to do,"** the three dwarves grumbled as they fell into place behind Farish, following his lead to the heart. Soon enough they stood within the large cave that contained the beating, jewelled heart of this dungeon atop its altar. It pulsed with a sickly pale light which reverberated through the dungeon and through their cores.

**"It's weak, the Keeper must have already abandoned it when he lost the fight,"** Anrakis said as he tried to feel for the Keeper's presence.

**"That means it has another dungeon heart to retreat to in another realm. That doesn't mean much now but it might come back. For now, would you like to do the honours Hurg? It was your quick acting which saved our archers,"** Farish said.

Hurg shook his head, **"Not want to smash it, you do it."**

**"Suit yourself. It's not protected by the Keeper's energy, it should be easy to do,"** Farish approached the beating heart and pulled his dagger out. He took a deep breath and counted to three before plunging his dagger in. There was a clink as the dagger struck the glass-like outer shell but immediately broke through and sunk into what felt like a fleshy interior. He quickly pulled his dagger out and leapt backwards off the dais as sparks began to escape the small hole he'd made. Everyone backed away as the energy contained within was released in quick sparks which spread out into the cave before the whole construct exploded in a burst of energy, whipping past the heroes as they watched in silence. When it was over the cave was dark save for a magical light which Anrakis conjured and soundless save for the breaths of the heroes. Without a word, one by one they turned and walked back towards home.


	4. Chapter 3: A Hero's Return

This chapter should have gone out on the weekend but I got distracted with other things. Anyway, we know so little about the heroes of the dungeon keeper world other than that they come from a land above and they believe in themselves as the good fighting against evil that seeks to destroy them (they're not wrong in that regard). But there's so much we don't know about them so I try to explore some of that in this chapter. This is my own ideas and, to my knowledge, there is no actual canon information on this.

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><p>The victorious heroes returned to the fortress amidst the cheers of the guards on duty, accompanied by several congratulations and pats on the back. It was rare that a dungeon heart was destroyed without suffering losses. This was a cause for joy and celebration in the fortress and an impromptu party was thrown in the group's honour in the mess hall.<p>

**"Guys, guys it was nothing really, anyone could have pulled it off,"** Farish said, hands up trying to placate the crowd of youngster asking questions.

**"Certainly not anyone young man. After hearing your debriefing you and your men deserve the praise you're receiving. You had a difficult fight on your hands and thought on your feet, your men reacted with honour and distinction,"** came a booming voice from behind which caused everyone to stop talking and some of the newer recruits to look down at their toes.

Farish spun around and gave a deep bow, **"My Lord, you honour me with your words."** Before him stood a tall man decked out in heavy plate armour and a two handed sword slung over his back.

**"Rise Farish, in the mess hall there is no rank. I am simply another protector of the light like you,"** the knight said with a wave of his hand.

Farish slowly stood up straight again and then looked around at the others trying to hide his embarrassment, **"Large social gatherings are against protocol in a war zone recruits."**

**"At ease men, given the victory today I think we can bend the rules just a little,"** the young recruits looked at each other uneasily while Farish looked up at the knight with a questioning look, the knight stepped back and beckoned, **"Walk with me Farish."**

Farish nodded quickly and fell into stride beside him.

**"You've been down here for … how long is it, three years now?"** the knight asked as he walked towards an empty corner of the room.

**"Four Sir as of last month,"** Farish replied.

**"Four years, half the recruits don't even survive their first, or if they do they return to the surface too injured or afraid to continue fighting."**

**"Yes sir. I do mourn those who have passed on or were injured but I pity those who are too afraid to fight on in their memory,"** it had been a sore spot for Farish for three years now. When his first year of service had ended and he'd been given the option to leave, he had seen no reason to. Instead he wanted to fight on for the friends he'd lost.

**"You are an honourable and brave man Farish, but not everyone is cut from the same cloth. We should not pity those who chose not to continue the fight, we should sympathise with them for they did not have the strength of will to continue facing down the enemy down here. But also those that return above often prove to be very helpful to us still, some of the best weapons and armour of the knightly order were forged by those who left the depths; if they had not they might not have found their true calling,"** the knight explained as he took a seat at a small table.

Farish sat too and nodded, **"I understand sir but there are already people above who fill those roles. The old and the crippled who cannot fight, another blacksmith won't make the difference in this war but another man with a sword or bow could."**

**"That may be true, but that is something we will never know. Everyone has a limit and it would be cruel to expect them to carry on beyond it. It is just part of being human."**

**"I see what you're saying sir,"** Farish nodded slowly but didn't look convinced.

The knight sighed and then indicated the rest of the people in the mess hall, **"A victory that goes as well as yours did is a rare thing. Despite the rules, we have to keep everyone's morale in mind too. We live in an underground fortress fighting horrors from the depths every day. That wears on the mind of any man, even you and I. A situation like this gives everybody hope and hope is what keeps this fortress standing. If there was no hope we'd all just curl up and give up; let the Keepers' forces waltz through and up into the overworld."**

**"Yes sir, Thesia … err our priestess was saying something similar last night, I mean when we were planning the attack."**

**"Then she is a smart woman, she sees that hope is important to all of us. Now go and enjoy your party, and try to keep things from getting too far out of control,"** as he said that he nodded towards three young giants who seemed to be in a drinking contest with Thurg and Haldrun.

Farish gulped at the sight and turned back, **"Sir, might I instead request a transfer?"**

The knight chuckled, **"Denied, now go and sort that out."**

Farish nodded and slowly got up. One of the giants collapsed to the ground while a second had begun a shouting match with Thurg. This wasn't something he would enjoy fixing.

Elsewhere there was a knock at a door.

**"Yes what is it, come in,"** Anrakis said with a frustrated sigh.

The door opened slowly and Thesia stuck her head through, **"Am I disturbing you?"**

**"Of course you are, but you already know that so what is the point in asking?"** the old wizard grumbled as he set a book down.

She shrugged off the comment and stepped inside, **"I was wondering why you weren't in the mess hall celebrating with the others so I came to check on you."**

**"Celebration, a bunch of kids gathered in a group wanting to hear your story while you eat the same food you do every day; does that sound like a celebration?"**

**"Come now, you're not normally this ornery … well actually you are but you're not so vocal about it."**

Anrakis sighed and stood up, **"It was a minor victory, it is no cause for celebration when we still have two far more powerful Keepers on our doorstep."**

**"Not everyone considers the bigger picture like you do Anrakis,"** Thesia said and swung her hand around indicating everything around her, **"Or maybe they do but everything we do must be done one step at a time. If we aren't proud of ourselves for taking our first step on a road to an important goal, then how can we be proud of ourselves when we take the last step?"**

**"This wasn't the first step though, nor will there ever be a last step. We can't kill the Keepers and we don't have the man power to keep them from having somewhere to retreat to, the world is too big."**

**"You sound like a tired old man Anrakis."**

**"Have you looked at me lately Thesia? I am a tired old man, I have spent almost thirty years fighting this war, the last five in this fortress. I gave up a wife and three children, and the joys of the world above because I thought I was doing what was best to protect them."**

**"You are, no one can serve and protect better than to do what you are doing,"** Thesia could see the tired look in his eyes but as a priestess she firmly believed in her words and felt they were serving the best interests of the overworld and her god.

**"I thought that way too, but one person cannot make a difference in the grand scheme of things."**

**"If everyone thought like that –"** she began but was cut off.

**"But everyone doesn't think like that, that is why I've always hated that argument. If everyone did think the same way then we wouldn't be here in the first place would we?"**

**"I suppose. But you're wrong; one person can make a difference."**

**"That is your opinion Thesia,"** Anrakis sat back down and picked up his book, saying no more.

Thesia knew the conversation was over and left the old wizard's room. She looked at the closed door and muttered, **"Maybe it is just my opinion, but I will fight on to the very end because I believe it's what's right."** With that she turned and walked away.


	5. Chapter 4: Dwarven Constitution

This is the part where I complain about representation of accents and unique speech patterns. While it's a lot of fun to have a dwarf talking with like Haldrun, it's a lot tougher to do in words than with speech (though to be fair I'm not that great at that either). The main problem for me right now is I don't always remember if I got his speech to line up through the chapters, but it's something I hope to improve as I go along.

The other tricky speech pattern is Thurg and Hurg. I'm aiming for a 'not dumb but sometimes have trouble expressing themselves because of limited communication skills' so it's a balancing act of just the right amount of not quite speaking in a proper way. I'd be delighted to hear input and criticisms so I can improve on this.

The last thing I want to talk about in this note is combat. In dungeon keeper combat is usually dangerous but slower than you'd expect considering you have lightning bolts and huge flails being swung around among other things. The game does a good job of balancing that but as far as story goes it's the old idea that hp is a measure of stamina and resilience as opposed to how many hits someone can actually take. As such you'll often see monsters go down in one or two hits because lets face it, taking a giant hammer to the head will probably be deadly. I think it works out for the best as it stops large fights dragging on as I hope I demonstrated both here and in chapter 2. As with the speech I'd be interested to hear any input and criticisms you might have. In the mean time, on with the show.

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><p><strong>"Time to get up boy,"<strong> a voice said, invading Phineas' dreams. He rolled over and ignored it.

**"I said get up,"** once again the voice went unanswered. Suddenly there was a sense of movement and then a harsh knock against cold stone. Phineas grumbled loudly and rubbed his head as he opened his eyes to find himself on the floor with his thin mattress on top of him. Haldrun was looking down at him none too pleased.

**"Too early to be getting up,"** Phineas yawned and scratched his bearded chin.

**"The morning shift already left, way past time for ye to be gettin' up,"** Haldrun growled at the sitting dwarf.

**"Why, I'm not part of the morning shift,"** Phineas whined as he collected his mattress.

Haldrun grabbed Phineas shoulder and pulled him close, **"We get up on time here, if your off duty activities conflict with my schedule then we have a problem."**

**"My activities? You drank at least three times what I did!"**

**"But do ya see me slumped on the floor complaining?"**

**"My head is throbbing, and that bump didn't help."**

**"I'll give ya a bigger bump if ye don't hurry up and get yerself ready."**

Phineas slowly stood and replaced his bedding before rummaging through his things, **"How come you don't got a hangover then?"**

**"Hangover, after that? Boy if ye got a hangover from a few pints of ale ye be an insult to dwarves everywhere."**

Phineas bristled at the insult but knew better than to talk back. Instead he busied himself with getting ready, **"What we doing so early anyway?"**

**"Training. Farish wants us running drills and I think he's got the right idea."**

**"Drills? You've got to be –"** then Phineas caught himself and looked down as he finished getting ready. There was no more argument and the two left the barracks to find the others.

The group was assembled in one of the numerous training rooms in full battle-wear and rubbing sleep out of their eyes.

**"Really Farish is this necessary? We've run drills so many times and I have more important things to do,"** Anrakis said, one of the few who weren't half asleep.

**"Of course it's necessary, our operation, which should have been easy, was a shambles,"** Farish said as he paced back and forth waiting for the two dwarves.

**"I think we did fine,"** Thesia replied.

Farish wheeled around to face her, **"Fine? Hurg here was in the infirmary most of the night because of his injuries and Alistair's arm is still in a cast."** At that moment Haldrun and Phineas walked in, **"And our dwarves thought it was better to go imp hunting than helping their comrades to not die."**

Haldrun looked around, not quite sure what he'd walked into the middle of and decided it was best not to say anything. Farish took a deep breath and then walked into the middle of the training room. **"Anrakis and Thesia with me, the rest of you weapons ready now."**

The two spell casters followed to the centre of the room, arriving just as Farish spoke several command words. There was a whirl of magic and suddenly several creatures stood in front of them; three bile demons and four warlocks. They were illusions of course but the magic made them feel and act real, although they wouldn't cause serious injuries. The three red and bloated demonic creatures dragged themselves towards the group, growling as the flails attached to their heads jangled. The warlocks began to chant, their robes swirling as they prepared their spells.

Thurg and Hurg acted first, moving forward to protect the others. They met the bile demons head to head with hammer blows against flail impacts. Eira and Frederick took a step forward, covering Alistair as they raised their bows but, before they could launch an attack, balls of fire ignited in the air as they were hurled towards them by the warlocks. The archers jumped to the side before returning fire. Alistair took on of the fireballs, too slow to react and yelped from the heat washing over him, falling to the ground in the process. Haldrun and Phineas charged into the swirling melee, swinging at the bile demons with their axes while Gerik charged at the warlocks. Fire once again ignited from the warlocks as they saw Gerick but this time they were big balls of flaming rock which flew towards him, impacted hard and sent him tumbling to the ground. The bile demons began emitting their noxious gasses which distracted their enemies. They took this opportunity to deliver powerful hits with their flails, knocking Phineas to the ground and causing Thurg and Hurg to stumble backward. Haldrun ducked under the flail aimed at him and swung upward with his axe, cutting deep into his target. The warlocks fired another round of fireballs at the archers at the same time they launched another volley of arrows. The arrows struck true however magic swirled around the warlocks as the arrows fell away and the pierced skin quickly healed over. On the other hand Frederick was struck by two fireballs as he tried to tumble to the side and felt the heat of a third sailing just past his face. Eira ducked down, letting one pass over her head but the one that had missed Frederick struck her in the chest. They both fell to the ground and a second round of fireballs aimed at Alistair struck his bad arm as he tried to jump to the side.

**"That's enough!"** Farish called out and spoke a word which caused the illusions to disappear, **"That was terrible, look at you all."**

**"I had 'im right where I wanted him,"** Haldrun grumbled as he leaned on the shaft of his axe.

**"Really? I missed that when you let the rest of your people get beaten down, I suppose you could have taken three of them on by yourself?"** Farish scolded Haldrun.

**"Hey don't you be talkin' down to me, I've been around longer than you have and I know what's what. Them two,"** Haldrun waves his hand at the two barbarians, **"Were still in it and between us we could a' takin' them."**

**"And what about the warlocks? What would you have done when they turned their spells on you?"** Farish was not happy by the dwarf's remarks.

**"They weren't my problem, them lot shoulda done a better job and besides we normally got you three to help out with enemy casters,"** Haldrun retorted.

**"What you normally have makes no difference,"** Farish was trying hard to keep his voice in check, "**There was no communication between you, no one cared about anything beyond the enemy in front of them."**

Frederick spoke up at that point, **"What about Alistair, he can't even fight right now."**

**"And what do you do if someone gets injured on the battlefield, leave them for dead? At least you had the sense of mind to step in front of him and try to draw the warlocks' attention but that didn't get you very far did it?"**

Everyone looked down meek except Haldrun who glared at Farish and Thurg and Hurg who were looked at each other and then the rest of the group.

Hurg took a deep breath and spoke up, **"I not the always the smartest person, planning not my thing –"**

Farish raised his hand to stop him, **"You and Thurg at least know your jobs, to keep the others from getting overwhelmed by melee combatants and you're good at it."**

Hurg nodded, **"Thank you but, not what Hurg wanted to say. Yesterday we did bad but we was a team. Today you break the team and treat us like we did wrong. You said my brother and me did our jobs but we're a team. We need you three too for everyone to do their jobs right, right?"**

Farish opened his mouth to speak then paused. After a few moments he said, **"I suppose you're right in a way Hurg. I can't expect a team to be at its best with some of its people missing. After what happened yesterday though we can't always expect everyone to be there when the fight starts and we need to learn to work together even when not everyone is there. It was harsh of me to pull this on you though, I just don't want everyone to die because of something we could have prepared for."**

**"You can't prepare for everything. I say we prepare for it together though,"** Thesia said putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Farish nodded and then looked at everyone, **"Ok everyone take a minute and then we'll try that again all together, this time it won't be so easy though."**

Everyone nodded and sat down to catch their breath and sort themselves out. Phineas sat next to Haldrun and said, **"Hey how come you wasn't affected by the gas?"**

Haldrun thumped his chest and replied, **"I had enough of those foul smelling demons do that to me. I'm a dwarf after all, I ain't bothered by such weak things as a bad smell."**

Phineas looked away and grumbled at this but before anything more could be said, Farish called them all to their feet again to get ready for another go.


	6. Chapter 5: The Knightly Order

So this whole part is completely non-canon ... not canon ... uncanonical ... shot out of a cannon, anyway. The only thing we have to go on from the game is that the lord of the land is always a knight. Personally I see the knight very much as a paladin-y sort of character so I went about it in that way. According to me Knights have an order, and since I'm the worst at names I went for very simple in this case, and while they are among the ranks of the rest of the army, becoming a knight gives you a head start (like starting as an officer). Also given they are incredibly durable and seem to be good leaders they naturally fall into leadership roles. I will certainly explore the knights as a group more later on, for now I did my best to mix in exposition without being too blatantly info-dumping and this is the result.

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><p>Farish was shocked when he received a message several days later ordering him to report to the Order's conference room. It was where the highest ranking knights met to discuss matters of state and the war. While knights didn't outrank anyone by default, their training in the Order made them well suited to leadership positions.<p>

Farish stood before the ornate double doors leading into the conference room, a samurai on guard on either side. The samurais had always had a close working relationship with the Knightly Order, they both were taught similar values and they were often the ones to lead the charge when a large attack was organised. Farish fidgeted nervously under the samurais' eyes, he could tell they were wondering why a lowly thief was called by the knights; or maybe it was his own imagination running away with him. He had been told the protocol when the messenger had come, he was to stand before the doors and wait. This waiting stretched on for what felt like hours, or more likely a few minutes but he had no way of knowing. The only changes were the occasional distant sounds of footsteps and murmurs down the corridor and the flickering of the torches which lined the walls.

He opened his mouth, about to say something when the door opened and a young man stuck his head through. **"They're ready for you sir," he said before closing the door again.**

The two samurai, in what was obviously a ceremonious act which had been practiced many times, turned ninety degrees to face each other and each placed a hand on a door, pushing them open in perfect synchronicity. Farish nervously took a step forward, then a few more until he heard the doors slam shut behind him. He found himself standing in a round room with torches that burned with blue flame lining the walls, giving off just enough light to see that there was a semi-circular table around the centre of the room with at least a dozen seats although only five were currently filled. In each of these seats sat a man dressed in the heavy plate and helmet of the knights with their large two handed swords strapped across their backs. It looked odd to always see the knights dressed in their full armour at all times but he'd heard the stories of the supposed regulations the Order followed. A knight was not to remove any part of his armour unless alone, in the presence of his immediate family or others of the Order. They were the wall that stood against the demons of the depths and heroes to many both here and above in the overworld. When they joined the order they put aside such thoughts as personal glory, each knight was to be respected equally. At the moment, all this custom did was make Farish feel uncomfortable. He fidgeted a little, not sure what to do.

**"Approach young Farish and be addressed by us the representatives of the Knightly Order,"** said one of the knights. A voice he recognised as the same person he'd spoken to a few days before. He slowly walked forward until he stood in the centre of the room. Above him was a low hanging chandelier, also burning with blue flame, which served to light up the centre of the room while keeping anyone standing in the centre from seeing those seated at the table too well. There was a pause and Farish wondered if he was supposed to say something, he had the same uncomfortable feeling as when he had been standing outside; like he was being judged.

**"Farish,"** a very deep voice boomed to his left, **"You led the assault on the yellow Keeper three days ago, correct?"**

Farish opened his mouth but didn't trust his voice and instead nodded.

**"You and your comrades were able to defeat a force that outnumbered you with no losses and effect the destruction of that Keeper's dungeon heart,"** the same voice said.

Farish wasn't sure if this was a question or a statement, he decided to stay quiet.

**"Your report was sufficient, although I note that during the battle the dwarves under your command were note fighting alongside the rest of your team and were instead hunting imps. Do you have something to say about this?"**

Farish swallowed, he hadn't been questioned about that during his debriefing and thought it wouldn't be an issue, **"Sir, I told them to follow the imps when we first found the dungeon."** He looked down as he said this, lying to a knight was not a good idea but he didn't want his group getting in trouble for something he was sure would be a one off mistake. The knights looked to each other as if conferring but he could hear nothing from them.

**"Tell me something Farish,"** it was the knight he'd spoken to three days ago. **"You've been down here four years now. Why did you never apply to join the Knightly Order, I believe you have the aptitude for it."**

Farish looked towards the source of the voice, surprised at the question, **"Well umm … I didn't want to go through the training process of a squire, I heard it takes years to become a full Knight and … I just didn't want to wait that long. Sir."**

He heard something which might have been a chuckle but once again the knights turned to each other as if some unspoken conversation was being had.

**"You would do well in the Order young Farish,"** the same knight said again, **"In your time serving here you have demonstrated courage, leadership and a willingness to protect others around you even if it's to your own detriment; even lying to a knight."**

Farish looked down at the floor again, his mind racing. He didn't know how they'd known he had lied, but it didn't sound like he was in trouble.

**"Knowing all this do you still have no desire to join the Order?"**

Farish looked up again, it sounded like they were extending an invitation to him. This didn't often happen and once again his mind was sent racing. He stood in silence for a minute, the knights watching him and waiting. Eventually he looked up again and said, **"I am sorry Sir but I still have no desire to join the Order."**

The other four knights began conferring with each other but the one he'd been talking to interrupted them, **"That is your choice to make, but you should think on it for a short time. Discuss it with your friends. In the mean time, that is not the only reason we brought you before us. We have a mission for you and your team, we have been planning a new operation against the Keepers for a while now and your recent success has shown us that you might be the team to help us end the current stalemate in one fell swoop. Your orders and the information we have available will be handed to you on your way out. You will see that we have given you a great deal of latitude on this mission, we expect good things from you and your team. You are dismissed."**


	7. Chapter 6: A Little Rest & Relaxation

This chapter's a little light and feels like an interlude I know but I felt it was a necessary. I explore the idea of the overworld a little more and there's some character interactions that I feel gives some missing flavour to the characters. Character development isnt my strongest point but I hope I am doing the characters justice, making them believable and mostly likeable and/or relateable.

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><p>The following morning everyone had gathered together in the barracks at Farish's request. He wore a smile that didn't reach his eyes and he would look down at an envelope in his hand occasionally.<p>

**"Ok this morning I have good news and bad news everyone. First off we have watch on the west gate this afternoon,"** there were several grumbles at this. **"We've also been assigned a new mission, it's not for a while still but we need to start planning and training for it soon."**

**"Now tell us tha bad news,"** Haldrun growled as he leaned on his axe.

**"If you insist, the bad news is that as for tomorrow morning you're all on three day leave,"** he waited for this to sink in and enjoyed watching their expressions brighten before adding, **"I know, it's such a horrible thought. I'll go and tell them to tear the papers up."**

Haldrun stepped forward brandishing his axe, **"Ye take one step in tha' direction and I cut ya in half."** This drew laughs and even a half smile from Haldrun himself.

**"Well what are you waiting for you, if any of you want to return to Draomar you better arrange passage with the portal guardians now, the afternoon watch is only a few hours away,"** there was much hurrying as Farish said this, leaving only Anrakis and Gerick behind.

Farish looked at them both quizzically, **"Well I have an idea of why you haven't run off but what about you Gerick, why haven't you gone with the others Gerick?"**

He could tell Gerick looked sad as he thought about it, **"Personal reasons, I … I just don't want to go back up there; not till I'm done down here at least."**

Farish shrugged and decided to leave it at that, **"Well alright then. Anrakis, I'm guessing you're going to just lock yourself in your study for the duration."**

**"You guess right, without all the interrupts of our routine I can get so much work done in three days,"** Anrakis replied although he didn't have the usual glimmer in his eye when he spoke of his research. Farish didn't press the issue, he knew talk of the overworld reminded Anrakis of the family he'd left behind, even now it still bothered him whenever the thought of returning was brought up.

**"And you sir, Are you staying too?"** Gerick asked.

**"Yes I will, I … I have stuff to do,"** Farish replied quietly.

**"I know that look,"** Anrakis said as he watched Farish's expression.

**"Now's not the time Anrakis. Please, I'll see you all later,"** Farish turned and headed back to the barracks. Anrakis and Gerick did the same after taking a moment to consider Farish's attitude. Gerick was confused but Anrakis knew there was something Farish wasn't telling them that was bothering him. He knew that soon enough he'd tell them all what it was, for now though he resolved to focus on his research and forget about all the things that were wrong right now.

**"What will you two gentlemen be doing with your three days off?"** Thesia asked as she walked beside the two barbarians.

**"Not sure,"** Hurg said slowly.

**"Maybe go visit the old arena,"** Thurg added.

**"You two get time off and your first thought is to go to a place full of fight?"** she rolled her eyes at that.

**"It what we do best,"** Thurg replied.

**"Don't you have families to visit, old friends to talk to?"**

**"Ma n' pa died when we was little,"** Hurg said, **"We looked after each other, and friends come down here to fight like us. Some left for other fighting, some died."**

Thesia considered this for moment then said, **"I'm sorry to hear that. Well I'm going to pay the temple a visit, talk to the clergy, pray and renew myself and my faith."**

**"Faith get old?"** Hurg asked confused.

**"You not need to be new again,"** Thurg added, **"You not old yet."**

Thesia laughed at this, **"That's not quite what I meant. Why don't you two come with me and you can see for yourselves, maybe you'll like it at the temple. Everyone is welcome there."**

The brothers looked to each other, shrugged and then nodded. Thesia was quite pleased with herself, while these two sometimes had difficulty with their speech they'd both demonstrated intelligence beyond the dumb brutes that others sometimes might refer to them as. She knew they'd enjoy their visit to the temple.

**"Phineas, ya got all yer taverns picked out yet?"** Haldrun asked as he quick walked towards the gate station.

**"My what, what taverns?"** Phineas asked confused.

**"Oh ye fool, yer drinkin' taverns. How do ya plan to get hammered if you don't know what taverns to visit?"** Haldrun grabbed Phineas by the arm and started dragging him along, **"Don't ya worry, I got it all planned out. I been back there enough times to know which are tha best places to visit and the ones that appreciate a fine dwarven ale."**

**"Oh … good,"** Phineas replied with no enthusiasm.

**"What's buggin' ya lad? You don't sound at all excited at the prospect of dwarven ale."**

**"Well see, I had planned on visiting my family. I haven't seen them in almost a year."**

**"Ah, yer family that makes sense. Sorry lad I shoulda realised."**

**"Don't you have family you want to visit too sir?"**

**"Nay, I had three brothers, all died in this war. Me father and I aren't on speaking terms and well that leaves me mother out too since she pretty much never leaves his side."**

**"Oh, that's a shame,"** Phineas looked down, sorry that he'd brought it up.

**"Ah dun worry about it, it's been over ten years since any of that bothered me,"** Haldrun slapped Phineas on the back.

**"Ten years? How long have you been down here?"**

**"Hrm let me think now … well, I'm pretty sure it's been at least fifteen years, maybe more I don't quite remember."**

**"Wow erm, well that explains a lot, sir. I mean like the way you act and stuff."**

**"You callin' me old lad?"** he saw Phineas stutter trying to reply and laughed loudly, **"Don't ya worry this old dwarf's got a lot of good fight left in him. I wager ye be runnin' home to mummy and daddy before I give in to these fell beasts."**

Phineas glared at Haldrun and almost shouted, **"You'll be a long time in the grave before I give up the fight old man."**

Haldrun gave a loud laugh again, **"That's the spirit lad. I'll hold ya to that."**

**"So Alistair, you gonna be showing off to all the girls. Can't resist a hero with a war wound,"** Eira said with a smile that was trying to break into laughter.

**"Come on Eira, you know you'd be head over heels for him if you saw him walking down the street. What's not to love?"** Fredrick joined in.

**"You're right,"** Eira paused and looked him up and down, **"Look at him he's tall, handsome and he knows how to hold his fine piece of wood."**

The two erupted with laughter while Alistair's face turned red in both anger and embarrassment. **"Would you two cut it out already? I'm going to visit the general hospital. The healers down here are good but they focus on quick healing, wrap it in a bandage and move on. In three days the hospital could fix me up good as new."**

**"Pff boring, you know Leo the new wizard apprentice on morning watch? He happens to have the day off tomorrow too. He's taking me out to a fancy restaurant,"** Eira said.

**"Oooh-la-la ms fancy's got herself a date,"** Fredrick jibed.

**"Oh stuff it, you've got a date too,"** Eira retorted.

**"Well yeah I do actually,"** Fredrick grinned quite pleased with himself,** "When I was up there last month I met this cute girl who was totally into my stories and war wounds-"**

**"War wounds?"** Alistair interrupted, **"You mean that scratch on your forehead? You got that when you fell out of bed."**

Eira and Alistair held each other as they laughed at Fredrick's hurt expression.

**"Aaanyway. The point is I sent her a message and she said she's got plenty of things we could do together for three days,"** Fredrick once again had his self satisfied grin.

The other two 'oooh-ed' in mock amazement before Eira said, **"Five gold says he'll come back depressed and tired."**

**"No bet,"** Alistair replied, **"We both know it."**

**"I hate you both, and I'll prove you wrong. You'll see."**


	8. Chapter 7: The Devil's in the Detail

So for this chapter I think I should explain a change I made to the way certain classes work, namely the mountain dwarf and the tunneler. As you may have no doubt surmised, I seem to have mixed those two roles. First tunnelers are usually short and stocky and therefore dwarves make good ones (plus their affinity for working underground in general). Their job is to range ahead and act as scouts, carving tunnels that wont comfortably fit others in it without say crawling and from there picking out good routes to wherever the heroes need to go. This saves a lot of time because much less tunnelling will need to be done and you don't want to spend your time digging out the whole realm looking for the way to the Keeper do you (think every time you ever walled out a bunch of hero parties, the realm would be entrirely mined out by the time you break out and attack). The mountain dwarves are the bigger and brawny cousins of the regular dwarves that often fill the tunneler role. They can hold themselves in a fight as normal but they also have the secondary job of helping the tunneler widen the path for the rest of the heroes to pass through, again natural dwarven proficiency at work.

I think this is a good change which adds a bit more flavour to the two classes since both always felt kind of lackluster in comparison to the other heroes to me. Also as a side note: can someone say foreboding?

I'm always interested to hear any reviews or critique anyone might have.

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><p>It was four days later when Farish had gathered his group up to discuss the mission they'd been given. He had spent three sleepless nights going over what he'd been given and now he knew he'd have to unload that burden onto the others too. Everyone else looked well rested save for Anrakis who was his normal old and worn self. The group stood in a spare room which they usually commandeered when there was a mission to plan. The fortress had war rooms for this but they were usually reserved for bigger offensive and defensive planning sessions while holding dozens of people. There was a map which outlined the north-western side of the fortress as well as a few of the tunnels nearby which were the result of continuous reshaping by both Keepers and heroes alike.<p>

Farish took a deep breath before beginning his briefing, **"Our superiors believe that with the entrance of the yellow Keeper this is a warning that other Keepers may soon be entering the battle here. We can't rely on taking them out as they appear or luck that they'll be distracted by each other anymore. If a third Keeper establishes a strong foothold this fortress will likely not be able to continue defending for long. Therefore the plan is to go on the offensive. Both red and green Keepers periodically attack as you well know towards the northern outpost. The body of water to the west helps keep them from coming from that direction and the attempted establishment and subsequent destruction of the yellow Keeper will likely keep them away from the east side for a while for fear of traps and ambushes."**

**"So we gonna attack one of them Keepers now then?"** Haldrun asked as he looked at the map.

**"No, what they want us to do is sneak in from the west while the fortress launches an attack from the front to divert their attention,"** Farish said.

**"Bait and switch,"** Anrakis muttered.

Farish nodded, **"Exactly, the frontal attack will draw the enemy out and while they're fighting we can sneak in. Once we're in the main force can feign defeat and pull back, luring them out even more and giving us more time. If we can get to the dungeon heart and destroy it before our forces have to retreat all the way back to the fortress we wont have to deal with anything more than the few creatures the Keeper can throw at us. If it pulls back completely then it risks our frontal attack breaking in."**

**"Sounds simple enough, what aren't you telling us?"** Eira raised an eyebrow and looked at Farish.

**"Spells,"** Anrakis said simply.

Thesia nodded, **"This isn't like the Keeper we fought last week. This one has had a long time to research spells and mine from gems. We'll be dealing with all sorts of dangerous spells once we get in there."**

**"Blimey, I can take a few bolts o' lightning. Won't be tha first time,"** Haldrun thumped his chest.

**"There's more,"** Farish said, causing everyone to turn to him in surprise, **"There's something going on there, something that the even the Knightly Order doesn't know for sure. Whatever it is the red Keeper is doing, it's dangerous and it's unknown."**

**"We're guinea pigs then, this just keeps sounding better,"** Haldrun said sarcastically.

**"So there's something, we don't know what it is, but it's dangerous and we're being sent to deal with it or at least the Keeper that is doing it before it's too late,"** Alistair shook his head.

**"That sums it up guys. I think … yes Gerick?"** Farish paused as the diminutive dwarf looked like he wanted to say something.

**"If you think we can do this sir, I believe you. I don't think we have to worry. We'll be fine right?"**

Farish watched Gerick for a moment. Gerick was older than himself or Thesia but still young by dwarven standards and he'd only been down here for a few months. The Keeper assault last week was only his second time seeing real combat. In many ways he was still a naïve kid, a competent one but still, his innocent question gave Farish pause. Eventually he decided what he thought was the best way to answer; a smile and a nod.

**"So then, now for the plan. The red Keeper's dungeon is in this area although we don't know anything beyond the border tunnels. We believe it approaches the river so I think that might be our best way in. We head down river until we get closer then tunnel in from there. Gerick, I want you to dig up ahead and scout the area out. Find where the red Keeper has fortified its walls and where it hasn't. There should be, or probably have been, gold seams in that area so that'll be a good place to look for as an entry point. Haldrun and Phineas, you'll be our main tunnellers for this since Gerick needs to do his own thing. Open up a path so we don't wait in the river and then we'll wait on Gerick's word. Once he's found us an access point you two can follow his lead."**

The meeting continued on into the afternoon as formations and plans were suggested and decided upon. Once they were finished the night shift had already begun. Some retired to their rooms while others headed for the mess hall.

As they left Alistair turned to Fredrick and said, **"So how'd your time in paradise with that girl go?"**

Fredrick looked down and grumbled, **"I don't wanna talk about it."**

Anrakis remained in the room with Farish and once the others were out of earshot said, **"What do you think it is, whatever has the higher ups spooked?"**

Farish shook his head, **"Whatever it is even the Council of Seven and the High Priestess can't get anything on it."**

**"Neither magical or divine sight helping, whatever it is it must be very dark to be able to obscure both,"** Anrakis said.

Farish looked up at the ceiling as if the answer would come from above, **"Why do you think I've barely gotten any sleep the last four nights?"**

**"And now neither will most of the rest of them now,"** Anrakis added.

**"Ignorance sometimes really is bliss my friend,"** Farish sighed and patted the old wizard on the back as they both walked out.


	9. Chapter 8: Unknown Waters

Today it's time for the mission. I was thinking of putting a connecting chapter between the meeting and the start of the mission because several days have passed but I didn't feel it was necessary. While typing this chapter I'm sure there was something I wanted to talk about but for the life of me I have no idea what it was, oh well.

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><p>The slow dripping sound of water as it dropped down from stalactites was the only sound save for the distant sound of running water. The river wasn't too far away and Gerick had already tunnelled through the rock in search of it. Everyone else waited in a tense silence, in the cave they'd dug into ten minutes ago while making their way to the river. Farish had decided it was a good place to rest and wait for their tunneller to scout up ahead. Each of the group looked back and forth between each other, they were on their own out here and clumped together, anything could happen. Phineas opened his mouth to speak but Haldrun put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. They suspected the red Keeper had tunnelled into the nearby area to extend its front line and they didn't want to risk being overheard by imps that could well be no more than a few metres of soft earth away.<p>

Minutes passed by marked only by the steady drip of water until at last the sound of footsteps came. At first they thought it might be imps approaching but it was only one step and then a whisper over the sound of water.

**"It's clear, you can come down this way,"** came Gerick's voice.

Carefully the two dwarves began opening up the tunnel Gerick had made, widening it so the rest of the group could go through. Sure enough they soon found themselves at the river. Nearby a waterfall cascaded down from some opening above, a perfect way to mask their movements.

**"Ok Eira, Alistair and Frederick, you go with Gerick and scout further down river. The rest of us will stick with Haldrun and Phineas while they open a path along side the river. If we have to pull back in a hurry I don't want to have to run the whole way fighting against the current,"** Farish said.

They each nodded and began following their instructions.

**"I guess it's too late to go back and grab my wellies,"** Fredrick groaned as he stood at the edge of the river.

**"Oh quit complaining,"** Eira said already standing knee deep in the river, **"They wouldn't keep the water out anyway, look how deep it is."**

Alistair grabbed Fredrick's arm and dragged him in, causing the archer to flail and almost topple in head first.

**"Oy careful,"** Fredrick hissed as he regained his balance, **"If our bows go in the wood'll warp, we won't be much good then will we?"**

**"Well you could always use your dagger,"** Alistair replied.

**"Oh sure, if I wanted to get into a knife fight with a dragon I woulda trained as a thief."**

**"Enough, keep quiet and get a move on before we're found,"** Farish snapped. They all jumped in surprise and quickly quietened down, following after Gerick who'd already made good headway despite being chest height in the water.

**"Maybe we should leave the side of the river, get some earth between us and it to use for protection if we're followed back out,"** Anrakis said as he waited for the dwarves to clear the path.

**"Yeah you're right, we'll dig in for about the same distance and then when we come back out we'll cross to the north-eastern side of the river,"** Farish nodded and relayed the plan to Phineas who was taking the lead in the digging, then added, **"Thesia, would you Thurg and Hurg stay here in case the others come back before we find them, we don't want anyone getting lost down here."**

**"What if something happens to you, just the four of you will be in danger,"** Thesia frowned with worry.

**"We'll be fine, if something happens we'll leg it back here. What better fall back point than a tunnel covered by a whirlwind spell,"** he said.

She smiled and nodded, **"We wont let you down, you all better come back safe."**

Thurg looked at the two dwarves and two humans as they tunnelled out of sight and then looked back at Thesia, **"Why we not going with them, we should be in front."**

Hurg added, **"Don't want to let them get hurt."**

Thesia reached up to pat them both on the shoulder, **"Don't worry you two, they'll be back before you know it and then we can all go in together. They need us hear to make sure that if they have to run away then they can run to us."**

Thurg looked at his brother and shrugged, **"We'll do the best guarding we can."**

**"See what I told you when we were at the temple, you boys are smart as anyone else. I'm glad we had those three days to get to know each other properly,"** Thesia said.

**"Hurg and me liked our days at the temple, there was lots of stuff to look at and people was nice to us."**

**"Yeah sometimes people call us dumb and stuff but we like being with you guys, you don't think that way."**

Thesia smiled, **"You don't have to worry about that, we all rely on you and you're our friends."**

Elsewhere the steady splash of water could be heard over the flowing river as four people made their way down it.

**"Ugh it's up to my waist now,"** Frederick groaned, **"It's so cold."**

**"How do you think he feels,"** Eira pointed at Gerick who was wading ahead of them with the water almost up to his neck.

**"It's not that bad, just gotta not think about it,"** Gerick called back.

**"See it's all about that mind over matter stuff,"** Alistair said through chattering teeth.

**"Don't give me that b.s. I can hear how cold you are,"** Fredrick retorted.

**"Boys, boys,"** Eira stood between them and held a hand up towards each of them, **"If you're going to fight at least let it be something worth fighting over; like me."** The two snorted and then turned towards the front, walking on in silence. Eira shrugged, **"At least we get some peace and quiet."**

**"Quiet,"** Gerick hissed back at them.

**"Isn't that what I was trying to-"** Eira began before she was cut off.

**"I hear something,"** Gerick said. As they quietened down he stopped moving and strained to hear what he thought were footsteps. The others stopped too and tried to listen, the footsteps were there and getting louder.

There was a slight meander to the river and the group headed towards the inner wall in hopes of gaining some measure of concealment. They could hear the padding of bare feat on earth now, heavier than an imp for sure.

**"Whatever it is must be just a little further along, maybe the red Keeper tunnelled into the river,"** Eira whispered.

**"Maybe, should we go tell the others?"** Fredrick asked.

**"Not yet, we don't know anything yet. Let's wait until we actually see something worth reporting,"** Eira replied. The others nodded and carefully waded further down river, listening out for the footsteps which seemed to get come and go.

**"Something patrolling near the river," **Frederick said, **"I'll sneak up ahead and see if I can find what it is."**

Eira nodded and he slowly made his way forward. After about twenty steps he waved the others up, indicating it was clear. Again he scouted ahead, going a little further this time until he was out of sight. Eira had watched his pace and counted how many more steps he'd gone. When it had gone past forty she looked at the others and motioned for them to follow her. They crept forward and then an ear splitting scream echoed off the walls. All three of them ran as fast as they could towards the scream. What they found made all of them stop dead. Two large purple creatures wielding large hammers, orcs, were standing in water which was quickly becoming red. A broken and battered body, Frederick, was now floating down the river, being carried away by the current. The orcs turned their attention to the newcomers and yelled a warcry as they activated dark magic which made them move faster than humanly possible. Eira and Alistair matched this with their own speed spell and began firing arrows at the oncoming orcs.

**"Fall back!"** Eira called out over the sounds of splashing as everyone started to move.

**"What about Frederick?"** Alistair replied as he nocked another arrow.

**"Even if he's still alive we can't get to him, we have to go, now!"** Eira shouted at him.

Gerick was doing his best to fight against the current but the orcs were bigger and faster. They were on him in seconds, battering him down.

**"Gerick!"** Alistair called out, hesitating for a moment.

Eira grabbed him by the collar and shouted, **"Get moving you idiot, that's an order!"**

This kicked him into gear and they both turned and fought against the current, the orcs in hot pursuit.

Both pairs were evenly matched in speed while wading through the river. On solid ground the archers would be lighter and quicker but in the water they didn't have as much weight and muscle as the orcs to fight against the current. As the two rounded a meander, the orcs close behind, they heard the sounds of fighting and quickly came into sight of a pitched running battle. Thesia and Anrakis were launching spells and backing away as bile demons, spiders and even dragons were giving chase. Behind them warlocks were launching fireballs and meteors but were being deflected by the pair's rebound spells for now.

**"Eira, Alistair, where are the other two?"** Farish shouted as he spotted the running archers.

**"Orcs got them, right behind us,"** Eira shouted back.

**"We have to get out of here or we'll be overwhelmed,"** Anrakis said as he launched a fireball at an oncoming spider, burning two of its legs. The creatures continued rushing in, they were outnumbered at least three to one and there were probably more coming. Things had gone horribly wrong.


	10. Chapter 9: Fighting Retreat

So I put these two chapters up together since I split the mission into two parts and I didn't want to be mean and leave it right in the middle of the action. In case it's not clear we take a step back at the start here to find out what was happening to the other guys at the same time and how they all ended up meeting up again at the end there.

* * *

><p><strong>"How much deeper we goin' ta go?"<strong> Haldrun asked as they continued to dig parallel to the river.

**"Not much further, give it maybe another couple of minutes and we should be far enough,"** Farish replied. They'd left Thesia, Thurg and Hurg behind five minutes ago and had been cutting a path through the earth, listening out for any signs of activity.

**"You hear something, I think they're footsteps,"** Phineas said as he paused his digging, **"I think they're getting further away though."**

Farish strained his ears but couldn't hear anything,** "Well keep going but quietly."**

Phineas nodded and continued on slowly and carefully, doing his best to make as little sound as possible. While digging was a noisy business a good portion of the sound could be muffled if done carefully enough.

**"We're definitely coming up on something, maybe a natural cave,"** Anrakis said as he closed his eyes, using his magic to try to gain an indication of what lay beyond.

**"I found it,"** Phineas whispered as he slowly uncovered an opening. Once the surrounding earth fell away the group collectively gasped. There was a huge cavern nearby. The tunnel they'd broken into lead straight to a large treasure room with a gem seam next to it. There had probably once been a large gold seam here which had been mined out and the sound of imps chipping away at the gems could be heard now echoing off the walls. The biggest shock though was that the domain wasn't red; it was blue.

**"There's a blue Keeper here?"** Phineas asked.

**"There was no indication of this,"** Anrakis whispered, **"How did it establish itself without anyone noticing."**

**"Either way if it's tapped those gems and mined out a gold seam this large this dungeon must have been here for a while and is well developed. This is a huge problem,"** Farish said.

**"We have to get the others and go back to warn everyone, if we hurry we can make it before the frontal offensive on the red Keeper,"** Anrakis advised.

**"I ain't runnin' we got us a chance to carve up some imps at the very least before we go,"** Haldrun gripped his axe and looked ready to run in.

**"Don't be an idiot Haldrun, a dungeon this well funded wont care about a few dead imps and we'll be in their domain, just the four of us; not a good chance of survival. But we also can't leave just yet either, we're here and we haven't been discovered. I'll scout out what I can before we go, if I'm not back in three minutes you guys find who you can and run for it. Top priority is getting this information back to the fortress, this that clear,"** Farish ordered as he prepared to speak the activating word for his concealment spell. The others nodded and stepped back into their tunnel while Farish braced himself and stepped onto the blue Keeper's domain. He shivered at the discordant beat of the dungeon heart vibrating through his body but paid it no mind beyond noting that the heart was to the west. He crept towards the treasure room and disappeared into the shadows.

Two minutes later the two dwarves were getting anxious.

**"I hate just standing here, I gots ta do something, the enemy's right there and me axe is thirsty,"** Haldrun grumbled.

**"Stay where you are,"** Anrakis whispered, **"You take one step out of this tunnel and I'll use you for one of my magic experiments."**

Haldrun glared at the old wizard, **"Ye wouldn't have the guts old man."**

**"We'll find out if you test that hypothesis won't we,"** Anrakis replied firmly.

Phineas stood between them, **"We can't fight now, Farish is relying us. What if he gets in trouble, we gotta be ready to help him."**

**"Nae lad, if he gets in trouble we gotta be ready to run much as I hate to say it, orders are orders and … he's right,"** Haldrun said slowly.

They all fell silent at this, the idea of leaving their leader behind was not a pleasant thought. As the three of them contemplated this there was a loud crashing sound and then a moment later the sound of a klaxon. Footsteps could be heard approach as well as much hissing and shouting. Farish sprinted into sight, his speed spell active as a dark mistress chased behind him, also speeded up.

**"Cover!"** Farish shouted as he spotted the tunnel. There was a crack of thunder as the dark mistress fired a bolt of lightning, a little too far away as the lightning dissipated just behind Farish. Anrakis jumped out from the cover of the tunnel and launched a pale blue ball of energy which the mistress ran straight into before she could dodge, freezing her in place.

**"We're in deep, run for it,"** as Farish said this several dragons and bile demons rounded the corner, spotted their enemy and began to charge.

Anrakis moved first at a shambling run, using his staff to help keep him steady. Haldrun and Phineas stayed hidden in the cover of the tunnel and as the first bile demon came close they leapt at it, slashing at it with wide swings of their axes. The demon collapsed under its own weight, too injured to keep itself up and the two used that moment to run. Farish brought up the rear, turning occasionally to see the enemy still in pursuit.

They ran for what felt like far too many minutes before they heard the rush of water as the opening to the river came into sight. At that same moment they felt an uneasy presence and a bolt of lightning lanced down from above, striking the ground right next to Farish and burning his skin. He gasped in pain but pressed on.

**"Thesia, fall back!"** Farish shouted as he continued to run. He heard the sound of fireballs ignite the air as warlocks in the back ranks fired at him. He jumped to the side, the small orbs passing through the space he had just been standing in and impacted the cave wall in a flash of light. Then he could see them all, gathered at the entrance to the tunnel.

**"Thesia, Anrakis, magical cover, everyone else defensive formation,"** everyone jumped into action at his orders. The two spell casters activated their rebounding auras as two balls of flaming rock were launched at Farish. He dove to the ground just in time to let them sail over his head and strike the magical barriers. The rocks rebounded off the barriers and were sent hurtling off, one struck the ceiling and caused small amounts of dirt and rubble to cascade down over Farish while the other flew back into the ranks of the rushing creatures and detonating as it struck a wall, the concussive force causing them to stumble. Farish used that moment to leap to his feet again and join the others.

**"Eira, Alistair, where are the other two?"** Farish shouted as he spotted the running archers.

**"Orcs got them, right behind us,"** Eira shouted back.

"We have to get out of here or we'll be overwhelmed," Anrakis said as he launched a fireball at an oncoming spider, burning two of its legs.

**"Everyone behind Thesia,"** Farish called. Quickly the entire group backed away leaving the priestess in front. The creatures seemed unperturbed by this manoeuvre and continued rushing in. Thesia waited, watching the onrushing creatures and ignored the fireballs that bounced off her rebound aura. Then she raised her hands and began chanting, her hair whipped around her as wind began to circle and then in a moment the force of a hurricane was directed at the onrushing creatures. They cried out as they were swept back down the tunnel, the orcs that had been chasing the archers were also caught by the edge of the spell and sent stumbling backwards, toppling over into the river and getting caught up by the current. Everything except the bile demon was gone; too heavy to be swept up by the winds the bile demons pushed on, ignoring the brief but powerful force that had done little more than slid them back a little.

**"Anrakis,"** Farish said.

**"I got them,"** the wizard focused and then sent a freeze spell at one, stopping it in place then again sent a similar spell at another, this one slowing the target to a crawl. Two bile demons were left and the barbarians and dwarves were on them in moments. There was a vicious swirl of hammers and axes which caught the brutes by surprise, leaving them battered and bleeding before they even had a chance to swing their flails. Everyone knew this was their one chance and took off running, hoping for the safety of home before they were run down.

**"Alistair, you're the fastest of us, go on ahead and make sure they don't launch that attack,"** Farish said. Alistair called an acknowledgement as he activated his speed spell and sprinted down the tunnel and out of sight.

After several minutes of running the group found themselves at the western gate, it was being opened before they even reached it in preparation for their arrival. All of them ran for the safety of their fortress walls and collapsed onto floors and benches, whatever was available as they gasped for air.

**"Looks like you had a tough time of it,"** one of the guards said as the gate was shut behind them.

**"You have no idea,"** Farish gasped, **"Are we too late, is the attack under way?"**

**"No they were about to leave I think but that archer that came ahead of you is probably with them by now,"** the guard said confused, **"Is there a problem?"**

**"You bet there's a problem, a big one. We need to be debriefed asap,"** Farish said as he managed to stand on shaky legs.

**"You want I should get a messenger going somewhere?"** the guard asked.

**"That's a good idea, tell the generals there's another Keeper here, perhaps more powerful than the red or green ones."**


	11. Chapter 10: Debriefing

That was pretty heavy, and these next two chapters of post incident recovery came naturally and surpisingly a little emotionally. I hope it comes through for you too.

I wanted to explore the higher ups that are in charge of this fortress a little more and I felt this was a good way to do it. Unfortunately, as we're about to find out, it's not all sunshine and roses among the leadership. With regards to the leadership presented, in my mind these are the ones in charge here specifically. Other major hero setups elsewhere in the world would probably have different but similarly arranged structures, for example another high priestess that represents the interests of the temples in her region, knights who lead the armies as combat generals and so on. Afterall the overworld isn't one big happy family, it has its own countries and politics too we just don't see it (at least I would imagine so and that's what I'm going by here).

* * *

><p>Farish, Eira and Thesia stood at one end of a large table which had a map of the fortress and its surroundings laid out on it. Standing around the table were some of the highest ranks that commanded the troops in the fortress and its reserves. Several knights were present, two arch-wizards from the circle of seven, a maiden of the high priestess and two representatives of the non-human races: a dwarf and a fairy. The knight that Farish had spoken to twice before was not among those present but he did recognise the voice of the other knight who had spoken to him when he had been summoned by the Knightly Order.<p>

The three of them recounted their mission, how they'd made their way to the river and then split up to scout the area. Eira spoke of how they'd been caught by orcs, how they'd lost Gerick and Fredrick and then fled to rejoin the others. Farish recounted the discovery of the blue Keeper's dungeon and how his scouting had alerted the creatures of the dungeon followed by their falling back. Thesia finished off describing how she'd waited for the others and then covered them as they had all retreated. There were a few questions, especially for Eira since hers was the only group that had lost anyone. She had to explain how the orcs must have ambushed Fredrick and then how they caught up to Gerick and killed him too. When they were dismissed Farish nodded to the other two to leave but stayed behind.

**"You have something more you wish to say thief?"** the disdain was clear in the knight's voice, it was obvious he didn't approve of Farish's chosen path.

Farish ignored this and said, **"There is something I thought it better not to speak of in the presence of my comrades."**

**"You have things you wish to hide thief, that does not surprise me,"** the knight sneered.

Farish bit his tongue at this and continued, **"As I said in my debriefing we found the blue Keeper's treasure room and I scouted ahead to see what else there was."**

**"And no doubt acquired some of the Keeper's gold for your pockets."**

Farish tried but he couldn't keep quiet this time, **"With all due respect sir, I have done nothing to warrant this hostility. My actions have always been for the good of the people I work with and this fortress."**

There were several shocked expressions at this outburst, save for the dwarf who was grinning. The knight didn't say anything for a moment though his expression was unreadable through his helmet, **"You would do well to remember your place thief. When you address your betters you should do so with deference and respect, something which clearly the thieves are not good at teaching."**

Farish glared at the knight but said nothing. The priestess was the next to speak, **"Gentlemen our time is pressing, so if you are both done I would like to hear what it is this young man has to say so we might be on our way."**

**"I apologise for wasting everyone's time priestess,"** Farish said and bowed to her. **"What I wished to say is that when I snuck past the treasure room I came to a corridor which had a lair and a hatchery leading off it, nothing unusual, but the next entrance way was sealed off by a magic door. I was in luck because soon after I found the door it opened to allow admittance to a vampire, quite a powerful one too I believe. The glimpse I caught of the room showed bookshelves lining the walls and several more equally powerful vampires. They were all standing around a glowing altar of some sort in the middle of the room. On the altar was the helmet of a knight and it was glowing with some sort of sickly purple energy, when I saw this dark ritual I felt a terrible evil coming from the room which almost made me wretch. Unfortunately this alerted a nearby warlock who dispelled my concealment which is why I then had to flee."**

The entire room sat in silence after Farish finished speaking. He waited for several minutes while they digested this new information before he was dismissed by the priestess. Before he had even left the room they had begun discussing what this was, what it could mean and if this was the source of what they had sensed before. The conversation was above Farish though, he didn't know most of what was being said and didn't much care. Now that the ordeal was over he had to deal with the fact that he'd lost two of his people, they all would. Everyone down here had lost someone close to them, casualties were part of the war for survival that they constantly waged down here, but that didn't help anyone deal with it any better.

**"What do you think he stayed behind for?"** Eira asked as she walked with Thesia to the medical ward to check on the dwarves.

**"He saw something when he was alone in that dungeon, something he'd rather we don't know about,"** Thesia replied.

**"You think so?"** Eira looked over at Thesia with a quizzical look.

Thesia paused and watched the flickering flame of a torch, **"I know so, I've been around him long enough to know when something's bothering him, and something is deeply troubling him right now."**

**"What do you think it is then?"**

**"I don't know, whatever he saw in there though hit him rather hard. I'm not sure what to make of it beyond that."**

**"I don't like being in the dark, I prefer knowing and then maybe I can do something about it,"** Eira's voice began to rise and was sounding more angry.

**"I know how you feel Eira, you lost two men today and you couldn't do anything to help them. You're feeling their loss and now you learn there's something else you can't do anything to help with."**

**"How do you know I can't help, I'm sure there's something I-"**

Thesia cut her off, **"Do you believe if there was something that could be done that Farish wouldn't have already tried to do it himself or told us about it at least?"**

Eira thought about this then sighed, **"No I suppose not. I just … I just hate not knowing."**

Thesia nodded, **"Me too, sometimes ignorance is bliss."**


	12. Chapter 11: In Remembrance & Interlude I

This is the end of part 1 (for those of you that have been reading from the beginning if you check out the prologue again you'll notice I added part 1 in front of it). The story comes to a natural rest point here as the set up story arc concludes but don't worry there still more coming. I've also included an interlude section because who doesn't like being all shady and mysterious? Originally I planned for the interlude to be coloured coded based on who's talking but unfortunately I can't do colours so I settled for tags and brackets, not as fun but I think it does well enough. Writing this last chapter was actually a little intense for me and got me into a bit of a sombre mood so I hope you get some of that emotional impact too.

I look forward to any reviews and critique you might have, especially now when the story has reached a natural break point.

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><p>Nine people stood lined up in front of a large stone monument. It depicted a knight poised for battle on top of a large stone plinth. Finely chiselled into this plinth were thousands of names, the names of those who had lost their lives fighting to protect this fortress over the decades. Right now an old dwarf stood in front of this edifice and was in the process of adding two more names. Everyone had their heads hung low as they thought back on their fallen comrades, the chipping of stone echoing off the walls was the only sound to be heard.<p>

After another two minutes the dwarf stepped back to examine his work and, nodding with satisfaction, turned to the group, **"That takes care of that. I'm sorry for your loss, the good die young."** He said nothing else and walked away, leaving them to themselves.

Farish stepped up and looked at all the names that were carved into the statue. He found the names of the men and women who he had been with before, and who he had lost on his first mission back during his first year, the friends he'd grown up with and trained with. He traced a finger lightly over each of the names and then located the names of those he'd lost during his last major mission before creating this team, there were fifteen names. They had helped beat back the Keepers' forces so many times they had thought they could do anything. The only ones who hadn't been lost in that massacre five months ago had been himself, Anrakis, Thesia, Eira and Haldrun.

**"Rest well friends, you've earned it. Gods willing, you're in a better place and one day years from now we'll see you again,"** Thesia said and clasped her hands together, muttering something under her breath before looking up at the others. Alistair's eyes were watering and Eira looked like she wanted to punch something. Phineas was sitting down on a bench near the entrance with his head held low. Thurg and Hurg looked sad but not overwrought, perhaps they were dealing with this better than the others because they'd experienced loss since they were young. Anrakis and Haldrun were the only two that kept their expressions neutral. One by one they each approached the statue and stood there in silence as they said goodbye. After a few minutes Eira left, followed soon after by Alistair and Farish. Thurg and Hurg left next but Phineas didn't look like he was going anywhere, he hadn't moved since he'd sat on the bench.

Thesia went over to sit next to him and said, **"I know it's tough to lose someone. During my first year here I was attached to a large assault force along with my mentor. She always taught me that when things are at their worst that's when you need to be your most cheerful. If everyone gives into sadness then there's nothing left, we have to honour the dead by protecting those who are still alive."**

Phineas looked up, tears streaming down his face and choked back a sob, **"I-It's just not fair."**

**"No, no it's not fair, but that's why we always push on. We have to keep going and aim for what is fair,"** Thesia put a hand on his shoulder and helped raise him to his feet, **"Come on lets get you back to your room."** She slowly led Phineas out leaving Haldrun and Anrakis looking up at the knight carved in stone, holding its blade in one hand ready to swing while the other was raised in front as a counter-balance.

**"Two more good men join the ranks of those we've lost,"** Anrakis said after a long silence.

**"Aye, they'll be joining those we lost before wherever that may be,"** Haldrun replied.

**"You still believe there's life after death?"** Anrakis turned to look at Haldrun.

**"Like I told ya last time, our ancestors be up there waiting for us, ready to accept us into their arms as heroes and friends,"** Haldrun said with conviction.

**"I wish I could share your view,"** Anrakis sighed, **"But even if there is an after life, there's no one waiting for me there."**

**"Dinnae' be daft, your wife and kids will be there waiting for ya."**

**"After what happened, I find that hard to believe."**

**"It weren't yer fault man, was the Keepers who killed them."**

**"I should have been there to protect them though, I could have saved them."**

**"Yer a smart man, you know that's a lie. You woulda just died too."**

**"Maybe so but at least I'd have died with them."**

**"I never thought I'd hear ya say something so stupid old man. Ya done good work and saved many lives just by being here. Yer family would be proud of you."**

Anrakis sighed and looked around the room, **"I suppose that's possible, but it doesn't make things any easier. And you're older than me dwarf."**

**"Maybe so but I don't look a day over thirty,"** the two of them smiled and then began to laugh. The room echoed with their laughter for a while before they finally managed to get themselves under control.

**"We fight on to honour those who can no longer stand beside us,"** Anrakis recited from the inscription at the top of the plinth, **"That is true enough."**

**"Aye true words indeed, now let's go get some ale. After all that's happened today I need a few strong drinks."**

**"I'll drink to that,"** Anrakis said and the two left for the tavern.

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><p><strong>Interlude I<strong>

RED{How close did they get?}

BLUE[My minions stopped them before they entered, except for one. A thief found the ritual room.]

RED{_You_ said your defences were sufficient, now I'm hearing incompetence.}

BLUE[They _were_ sufficient, no assault could have got past them.]

RED{Yet a lone _thief_ managed to bypass everything.}

BLUE[You know as well as I that it is difficult to detect a thief when it doesn't_ want_ to be found.]

RED{Hah, that's what traps are for.}

BLUE[Excuse me for _someone_ not allowing me the time to create a proper workshop.]

RED{You dare blame _me_ for this? You have guts.}

BLUE[I _dare_ because I _know_ you won't act on your threats, at least not yet. Remember what happened last time.]

RED{That _was_ fun wasn't it. This time is different though, you _know_ what's at stake.}

BLUE[I know and you'd be a _fool_ to think I'm not aware of what you're planning when I finish this ritual.]

RED{I _always_ work under the assumption that you know what I'm going to do, it avoids mistakes early on so I can finish you off quicker.}

BLUE[We'll _see_ about that.]

RED{We _will_ indeed.}


	13. Part 2: The Grey Between Good and Bad

Unfortunately I can't fit the title of part 2 and chapter 12 into the same chapter heading so from that comes this, a little extra of me talking randomly; if you don't want to read on feel free to skip ahead you won't miss anything important.

So for those of you that are still here I thought I'd describe a little of what, in my mind's eye, the realm this story is set in looks like. I did a basic paint doc layout to help me get my bearing but unfortunately it was lost due to poor data management and a corrupted work computer. Before I start, one thing I want to go over that you've probably noticed differs from the game: height. While it makes good sense for height not to be an issue in the game, it would be far too complicated to deal with, it just doesn't make sense to me not to consider it for a story beyond just giving yourself an easier time of it. Of course you could say that the concept of fortified walls also covers the ground and ceiling and I think that would make good sense, but that still leaves all those unfortified areas where you could be coming in from above and below.

If there were entire bases being built underground it would probably be a sound tactic to tunnel in from below and above in addition to from the side. No matter how well defended the entrance to your base is, it doesn't matter if the enemy can simply bypass it and tunnel into your storage room from above. Personally I'm taking a 'it should be considered but not necessary to keep bringing up all the time' approach. For example I've talked about how the walls are guarded and defended much as a real keep would. One of the better ways to defend a base would probably be to make the ceiling so high that anyone that tunneled in through it wouldnt be able to drop creatured in because they would seriously injure or kill themselves from the fall. Of course with an entrace up there you could see flying creatures and ranged spellcasters causing a problem but on the other hand its a world where anything you can do i can do too. Any flying creatures that come down could be met with the target's own flying creatures and casters could be fired back upon with their own casters. Not only that but this means you can't commit a sizable portion of your army to such an attack since there needs to be room up there for casters and any flyers will end up engaging the whole of the opposition's army when they descend to engage.

Now coming in from below is much more feasible since it has the benefits of coming in from above while you cant dig huge holes in the floor and build above them to avoid it. In this way I'm taking the 'bases have reinforced floors to go with their reinforced walls' approach simply because it makes more sense to me for that to work than reinforced ceilings. On top of that, the height and numbers advantage offered anyone guarding walls and firing on attackers trying to get inside I think would outweigh the advantage of being able to reinforce ceilings. To this end the fortress and its outposts were built with high ceilings and walls which can be guarded for better defence and still deter tunnelling above or below it. Although all this is not to say that sneak attacks from another angle won't happen, because they probably will at some point but it just won't be the first time it's happened.

Well enough of that, so how does the realm look?  
>The way I think of it there's the layer of impenetrable rock that surrounds the outside as happens with each realm. I'm still considering if this has an explanation, if there's a way around this rock and all the other ways this could be explained. I already touched on this briefly when talking about dungeon hearts, the way I see it a Keeper can jump long distances by creating a new dungeon heart somewhere but can't take anything with it, just its consciousness.<br>So the rock on the top-middle part of the map juts down about a third of the way but other than that the rock is mostly rectangular in shape save for small irregularities since its a natural formation and not just a fashioned shape.

This large protrusion of impenetrable rock in the top side forms the barrier between the red and green Keepers, left and right respectively. They each have sizable dungeons, fully equipped and all that. The fortress is in the bottom-middle of the map and takes up about a third of that area, it takes up a lot of room, which is to be expected considering what it has to put up with and how many troops it needs to house to do so. The keep is backed against the impenetrable rock and has a large outpost at each of its left, right and top sides which functions both as an early warning system and, in the case of the northern outpost, often bears the brunt of enemy attacks.

The now abandoned dungeon of the yellow Keeper is pressed against the right-middle side of the map, not too close to the green Keeper but not far either. The green Keeper could and potentially may already have found and claimed the yellow dungeon. Somewhere between this abandoned dungeon, the green Keeper and the right outpost is a large lake which somewhat restricts the green Keeper from tunneling downwards and attacking from the right.

There is also a large river, the one Farish's expedition went down, which begins between the top and left outposts and flows towards the top-left until it encounters impenetrable rocker where it probably descends as a waterfall into the depths. The red dungeon reaches close to or possibly cuts into this river near the impenetrable rock while the newly discovered blue dungeon breaks into the river not much further upstream. The blue dungeon is smaller than red and green but it's well constructed in its compact size. Some rooms have been skimped on in an effort to build quickly to attract powerful creatures like dragons and orcs but the dungeon is still slowly expanding.

That about covers the main features of the map as it stands right now. I appreciate that this description isn't enough to see what I see in my mind's eye but hopefully it's enough so that you can have an idea of how things are laid out in this realm. It also turns out that this little side-piece has grown as big as a full chapter, I think that's funny but I won't delay you from the next chapter any longer. If you have any questions or anything other concepts you'd like me to expand upon please let me know.


	14. Chapter 12: Bringing Down the Axe

So this is the start of part 2. With part 1 I hoped to set the tone and the characters, give a feel for the world around them and expectations for the story. Part 2 is where I'll be exploring some of these aspects of the world in greater detail and the plot starts to take shape. As you might glean from the name of part 2, there are things to be worried about beyond the possibility of death in the depths at the hands of a Keeper and the creatures in its dungeon.

Also someone suggested that this would be easier to read if I didn't bold the speech. So I'm trying that for this chapter, I figured the bold provides a nice contrast to prevent a wall of text feel but please tell me what you think and which looks better.

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><p>It had been several days since the deaths of Gerick and Frederick. The group had been given two days to themselves in mourning before they had been re-included in the guard duty roster. Thurg and Hurg were returning to the barracks after having spent the last eight hours on the walls.<p>

"Anything happen on your side?" Thurg asked.

"Nah, but I heard you got attacked," Hurg replied.

"Just a bunch of them beetles and spiders, nothing important."

"Huh seems odd, I wonder why they attack in small groups like that."

"I dunno but better than a big attack, 'specially when the others aren't here to help."

"Yeah I know, don't feel good when we don't got anybody we know with us," Hurg said but before Thurg could reply they were approached by a knight with two retainers following behind him.

The knight stopped in front of them and one of the retainers stepped forward, producing a small scroll from which he read, "By order of Sir Ethaniel of the family Trendell you are both transferred as of oh-six-hundred hours to Sir Ethaniel's personal honour guard." The retainer stepped back and the second stepped forward, handing them each a small parchment which had their orders.

"Transferred, why we going to this new unit?" Hurg asked as he looked at the piece of paper.

"Those are your orders," the knight spoke for the first time, "You are to follow them without question."

Thurg scratched his head as he looked between his brother and the three people standing in front of him, "I'm confused, did we do something wrong? I like working with Thesia and those guys they're our friends."

"You are soldiers men, friendship has no bearing here. The thief Farish has proven himself unfit to lead and therefore his squad is being reassigned," the knight said, his voice getting agitated.

"What, but Farish is good to us, he trains us and stuff and we all work together as a team," Hurg said also confused and a little upset by the circumstances.

"That has no bearing. You have your orders, I expect to see you both tomorrow morning for exercises and training at your new barracks," the knight said no more, turning and walked away, his two retainers following in close formation.

"What we gonna do about this, should we tell Farish, was it his idea?" Thurg asked.

Hurg shook his head, "I don't think so, but I don't know. Let's go talk to Thesia."

Anrakis was carefully pouring a vial of greenish liquid into a swirling vortex of mana when he heard a knocking on his door. He sighed and ignored the knock, focusing instead on getting just the right mixture. Another knocking, this time much more insistent and again he ignored it. As the first drops left the vial there was a terrific banging as if someone was kicking his door down, he jumped at this and half the vial poured out. The vortex started to destabilise and then erupted out into the room, setting some things on fire, freezing others and blowing pieces of paper into a brief vortex. Anrakis growled and extinguished the fire with a wave of his hand before wrenching the door open and almost shouting, "What is it?!"

A small dwarf stood on the other side, shaken by the outburst and quietly held up the piece of parchment he was carrying, immediately running off as soon as Anrakis has taken it. No sooner had Anrakis shut the door when there was another, lighter but persistent knocking. Once again he opened the door and growled, "What is it now."

Thesia immediately stormed in waving some parchment around, "I can't believe they're doing this, are they out of their minds. This is just wrong."

"What are you blathering about, make some damn sense for once," Anrakis said harshly.

She was about to speak when she realised the state of the wizard's room, "Gods above what happened here it looks like a storm hit this place."

"You're not far off," he grumbled.

"Nothing I did I hope," Thesia looked around, picking up the papers that had scattered on the floor.

Anrakis shook his head, "No this interruption came just before yours, now would you care to explain why you're here in the first place?"

"This," she thrust the parchment under his nose for him to read. He took it and scanned the lines before he realised that the paper he had been holding had been snatched out of his hand.

"I was right, they're really going to do this," Thesia almost screeched.

"You're being transferred from our unit?" Anrakis asked looking back up at her.

"We all are," she waved Anrakis' paper in front of him which he realised looked very familiar to Thesia's transfer orders, "They're demoting Farish or getting rid of him or something."

"This is insane," Anrakis said.

"I know."

"It wasn't his fault."

"I know."

"Why are they doing this then."

Thesia stomped her foot, "How the hell should I know, whatever the reason we have to stop this."

"How though, from the looks of it these orders are coming from quite high up along the chain of command. Farish must have upset someone pretty high up to get this much attention," Anrakis said.

"You don't suppose … no that's crazy," she shook her head but Anrakis glared at her**,** "Maybe whatever he saw when he was scouting was something that they don't want him talking about so this is the first step in keeping him silent."

"What do you mean 'whatever he saw' do you know what he saw?" Anrakis asked.

"Of course not but you've known the man as long as I have, you can tell when there's something troubling him can't you," Thesia replied.

"I suppose," he shrugged, "I've never been good at reading people."

"Too busy with your experiments is why," Anrakis opened his mouth to say something but before he could Thesia continued on, "Anyway the important thing is what are we going to do about it?"

The wizard furrowed his brow and stroked his beard, "We follow orders."

"But-" Thesia's mouth moved as if it was looking for words to say.

Anrakis shook his head, "There's nothing we can do. This is far beyond us."

Thesia hung her head, she knew he was right but she hated it. Without another word she walked out of the room.

"I won't be going anywhere, and neither is he boy," Haldrun said with a firm voice.

"You have your orders, you will do exactly as they say," the knight speaking to the two dwarves replied.

"I'm on to ya tricks, ye got it in for us and yer doin' all this 'cause of some sort of stupid ego thing," Haldrun said, banging the shaft of his axe against the ground as if it prove his point.

"I will not explain myself to you dwarf. I give you orders and you obey them, that is how this works," the knight was sounding like he was having difficulty controlling his voice.

"I'm not going nowhere ya poncy git."

There was a sense of satisfaction in the knight's next words, "Then you will be stripped of your rank and status and sent back to the dwarven kingdom in disgrace."

Haldrun looked like he was about to attack, gripping his axe tight enough for his knuckled to turn white, "Ye wouldn't, insulting me honour with such a suggestion just-"

The knight didn't falter; Haldrun relaxed his grip on his axe as he let out a long sigh.

"Excellent, I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning dwarf."

When the knight was out of earshot Eira and Alistair approached them.

"Not you guys too?" Phineas asked.

" 'Fraid so, that bastard hit us with it twenty minutes ago," Alistair glared at the corridor the knight had left through.

"Watch your language Alistair, what if someone reports you?" Eira elbowed him in the side.

"He knows what he is," Alistair hissed.

"I can nae believe this is happening," Haldrun said in a sad voice.

"None of us can, but what's going to happen to Farish?" Eira asked looked at each of them.

Haldrun shrugged and said, "Whatever it'll be, ye can bet yer last gold piece it'll be dangerous."


	15. Chapter 13: Knightly Politics

So with the last chapter and this one we finally can put some names to some of the characters that have been introduced beyond our small group. My goal with the start of part 2 has been to flesh out the Knightly Order. The way I see the knights is much as you'd expect paladins, royal guards and other similar ranks to behave in other settings. They have codes, honour and duty among other matters and this is partly why knights are so often leaders and high ranking here. While this is the sole update this week, and likely there will only be one update next week too, there is still much more story to tell and I intend to cover it all.

Also note this is the second time I'm not bolding speech so I am still looking for input to help me decide what to do in future chapters.

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><p>Farish was pacing back and forth in the barracks, he was alone at this time of day because most of the men in this room were part of the regular morning watch. Three men, all wearing the garb of samurais marched in, they said nothing as they stood in front of him at attention.<p>

"What did I do to warrant a showing like this?" Farish asked.

"You did and will do nothing, they are here because I am here," a voice said behind them which Farish recognised immediately.

The knight which had taken a disliking to him walked forward as the middle samurai stepped to the side. Farish did his best to sound civil, "To what do I owe the honour of your visit sir?"

"You have been reassigned to the northern outpost effect immediately, you will be under the command of Knight-Protector Justine," the knight said, he was clearly smiling beneath his helmet.

"What are you talking about, I have a unit, why am I being reassigned?" Farish looked at the samurais as if they would have an explanation but their expressions didn't change.

"These guards are here to escort you to your new post now, collect your gear," the knight continued, he turned as if to walk away.

"You're crazy, you come in here and expect to do all this to me?"

The knight half-turned back to look at Farish, "This sounds like insubordination. Guardsman, if this man makes any attempt to resist then arrest him." The samurai nodded but said nothing.

"Arrest me, I haven't done anything wrong. I'm going to speak to the other generals about this, this is ridiculous," Farish said as he turned to leave via the other end of the barracks.

"That sounds like resistance to me," the knight said. One samurai immediately stepped forward and put a hand on Farish's shoulder.

Farish shrugged the hand off saying, "Hey it's not wrong to want to speak to a superior officer."

"I am your superior, you will report to me if you have any problems; after you have carried out your orders," as the knight said this the other two samurais stepped forward too.

"Like hell I will, you're not the only one in charge around here," Farish again made for the door and this time the samurai grabbed his arm. Farish yanked his arm away and this time found himself being grappled from behind. He struggled against the hold but then a second samurai came around the front and grabbed his arms.

As he struggled the knight walked in front of him and said, "You are under arrest for disobeying orders and insubordination."

"As you were men!" a new voice boomed from the doorway. The samurai immediately released their grab and stepped back.

"Vallaer, what are you doing here. This is none of your business," the knight said.

"I think it is Ethaniel, misuse of power is a big no-no, what if the Knight-Commander heard about this; or the inquisitors," another knight walked into view, Farish recognised the voice, the knight who'd talked to him in the mess hall not two weeks ago.

Ethaniel was silent for several moments as he considered these words, "You have no evidence to present to the commander, much less the inquisitors."

"Maybe not," Vallaer shrugged, "But if you do arrest this man I will speak in his defence, this is an injustice and is something we should be working to prevent. I heard what happened and you cannot justify either of the charges you're threatening."

Ethaniel turned and indicated his guards follow, "Perhaps, but he has his orders. If he doesn't report by the end of the day I will be back and there'll be nothing you can do about it." With that he left he barracks.

Farish let out a long sigh and then looked up at Vallaer. "Thank you sir, I don't know what I would have done if you didn't come," he said as he rubbed his arm which had started bruise from the grabs.

"I'm only sorry I didn't get here sooner, as soon as I read about the transfers I knew something was up. I had already heard the two of you didn't get along during your debriefing," Vallaer said as he indicated Farish should take a seat.

"He's doing all this because of that one comment, that man's got a screw loose," he grumbled as he sat down then mumbled, "I apologise for my bad word choice."

Vallaer gave a short laugh as he took a seat, "You're right but I'll pretend you didn't say that for your own sake. Unfortunately there are some within the order who do not approve of people like you, no offence, the fact that you are a valued and useful part of this army seems to just go over their head."

"None taken sir, it makes me feel sick," then the other thing Vallaer had said clicked, "Transfers sir?"

"Ah yes you wouldn't have heard yet," Vallaer rubbed the top of his helmet with a gauntleted hand, "The rest of your little group had been reassigned to Sir Ethaniel's elite unit, from what I hear they're going to be going after the blue Keeper the day after tomorrow."

"What, you can't be serious."

"I'm afraid so, there's nothing I can do about that, we are of similar rank and I can't countermand his orders. The commander has already approved his mission."

Farish looked down at his hands resting on the table, "And I won't be there with them."

"I am sorry, but you've trained them well, I'm sure they'll be ok."

"I hope so," his hands clenched into fists as he looked up, "I am grateful for your help sir but if you'll excuse me I have to pack for the front lines."

Vallaer nodded and stood, leaving Farish alone in the barracks to pack.


End file.
